I spent time last Saturday morning attempting to write a post titled, “Thoughts On Becoming Ourselves.” The quote above was the first paragraph. The more I wrote, the more convinced I became that a lengthier discussion wasn’t necessary and that everything I wanted to say could be summed up in one paragraph. Sometimes brevity is a virtue.

That said, this post is very heavily fall-themed and contains a mix of quotes and some photographs from both my backyard and my kitchen. I absolutely love fall. The leaves are finally donning their autumn colors (in this part of North Carolina, the leaves don’t change color until November). And even though it’s only just beginning to look like fall outside, the inside of my home has indeed looked and smelled like autumn since September. I’ve been baking a lot of pumpkin bread, as well as apple cinnamon bread and a variety of cookies, including oatmeal raisin, pecan sandies, and ricotta chocolate chip (my personal favorite). You’ll find photos of some of those below.

I had a little too much fun creating the graphics in this post; so, there may be too many. All of the images in those graphics were made by RedHeronLighthouse.

As for the birds…the closeup of the Eastern Bluebird (below) is my favorite photograph here. I got that shot this afternoon, and I love the pop of seasonal color in the background.